"Then what about you? Are you ok?" Ailetta asked, her tone couldn’t hide her anxiousness although Noah didn’t show any signs of being affected by the so-called hallucinations.
"I’m fine....As long as I’m able to see past the illusions. But.....if I couldn’t resist it, my situation would be just like that ant..."
The ant by this time was on one knee, its breaths were labored, its energy drained, and its mental, broken. Countless swords had pierced through it that it had lost count how many times it was stabbed. The pain that had wracked its being earlier had dulled into numbness. It no longer felt fear, anger, or even the primal urge to fight for survival. Instead, a hollow emptiness consumed it, and its mind teetered on the edge of oblivion.
It fought to keep its thoughts coherent, but they continue to slip its mind with each breath. Every second, it felt that it was losing its sense of self. What was its purpose? Why was it here? The questions echoed in its mind, yet no answers came. The meaning of its existence seemed to dissolve.
Eve watched with mild joy while her scythe was held loosely at her side, flickering with dim violet flames. Her unfazed gaze showed that she understood that her ability had reached its limit. The ability had the potential to be deadly, but when the opponent has such a tenacious vitality as the ant, their soul could not be fully separated from the body without a stronger source.
However, her smile showed that the results didn’t dampen her spirits at all. She was enjoying herself, the same way a child would enjoy themselves when mindlessly playing with their toys.
The fog she released began to absorb back into her body, though the oppressive chill still lingered.
"You’re still bad for hurting Papa," Eve spoke to the ant as she made her way towards it. Each step contained a pep in her walk as if she was taking a stroll. With each step, flames, miasmic flames that contained both violet and black energy, ignited on her body. With each step solidified a part of her flames that materialized into a piece of armor that snuggled tightly around her body.
The armor eventually fully encased her body, forming perfectly around Diablo’s face centered at her chest. An armor that retained the same coolers as her flames. With the change, she controlled the armor to not affect the long skirt Noah had made for her, opting to keep it on, layered over her armor.
Noah’s eyes winced as he saw the armor materialize, a fleeting expression of frustration crossing his face.
He couldn’t understand her thought process. If she had the ability to manifest something , why didn’t she use it earlier? He questioned, though he already suspected the answer would be as maddeningly simple as it was illogical.
Even if he asked, Eve wouldn’t provide a response that made sense. She wasn’t one to think in terms of practicality or modesty. Before the merge, she had shown no concern for her appearance, no regard for societal norms like clothing or decency. To her, such concepts were irrelevant. That lack of concern had only deepened after the merge.
"I’ll make sure you behave," Noah’s thoughts cleared as he looked upon Eve standing over the ant.
The ant knelt almost motionless; its trembling body betrayed no sign of resistance. Its presence seemed unaware of everything going on. When it heard Eve’s voice, it looked up to her in confusion before looking back towards the ground.
Eve, looking down on the ant without a change in her expression, lifted up her scythe over her head with both hands. The scythe’s aura spiked, the bolts of violet electrify surged forth around it, and with a decisive hack, her scythe traveled through the ant’s body, unfazed by its armor, and lacking the physical trauma that one would expect.
Noah’s gaze only narrowed, deeply scrutinizing what she did. If the ant before had still showed signs of being alive, now, its body became a husk of its former self.
The sheen of its armor became dull, while its eyes became empty. However, the small movement of its mandibles indicated that it wasn’t entirely dead.
Instead of trying to understand what was happening, Noah couldn’t keep himself in suspense anymore, immediately going to the system to look up the skill for himself.
Revenants origins (Lvl 1)- Fully concentrate your death energy to harvest the life of a creature. Upon delivering a fatal strike, the creature’s soul is bound to the miasma, and its body is turned into an undead servant under your control. Cost 10-50% mana based on the strength of the monster. Creatures turned into undead are unable to use skills from when they were alive. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel_fіre.net
".....All of my creatures are really taking after me..." Noah muttered, he was both proud and stricken with surprise. Each of his companions, both monsters that were tamed and monsters bonded to him by his vessel ability, took after his trait of gaining subordinates of their own.
He shouldn’t be surprised; Eve already had the capabilities of controlling her own army. But that was controlling, ’creating’ an army was another. Even if she used her ability to control zombies, it wasn’t an ability that could be used forever. The ability was one where she had to consistently give directives, otherwise the zombies would act on their own.
When Eve wasn’t bonded with him, her ability had almost no weaknesses. Before, even if she failed to give an order in time, the undead in question wouldn’t turn against her. But now was different, undead under her command would be a constant threat that would always have them watching their backs if she were to go without giving them orders within the given time. Zombies may not typically eat their own, but they would surely try to feast on Noah and the others at the first chance they get.
Although Noah was amazed by the skill, he couldn’t help frowning at the name. Revenant, a name that he felt was foreshadowing something far deeper than just simple zombies and undead. And with the name of Eve’s skill, Noah held a foreboding feeling that he wasn’t going to like when the truth of the name fully came to fruition.
He wasn’t able to go deeper into his thoughts when he heard a power cry, a cry that even made him feel slightly oppressed. He had already checked on the others beforehand, but within the amount of time he looked away, the battle with Arachne had already reached a turning point.
The behemoth’s newly acquired thorns shorten and stab at a rate far faster than their previous speed. Each thorn held glowing red veins flowing through them, empowering them past their limits. Each strike tore through the air with a sharp hiss, forcing Arachne to attack, focusing on not getting struck, rather than continuing to spread her poison.
Not only that, but most of the injuries inflicted on it were healing at a visible rate, save for the huge chunks missing from it by the mouths formed on the slime aberrations body. Those areas refused to heal, it was unknown whether the spider was incapable of healing wounds of such proportions or if there was something special about the slime mouth’s functions.
Noah narrowed his eyes, assessing the situation. Despite Arachne’s new transformation, she seemed to be reaching her limit. It wasn’t that she was weak, but the support the behemoth received from the tree was the tipping point that made her opponent mitigate her potential threat.
Watching the scene, Noah clenched his fist, conflicted. He considered calling Arachne back over to reapply his buffs, only to become aware that the buffs had a high probability of not tipping the scale of the fight. Rather than continue to expose Arachne to danger, knowing that she wouldn’t sit this fight out, he felt that he should finally join the fight, although he was reluctant to.
"Noah, I can still handle it." Ailetta stopped him the moment she noticed the mana circulating within his palm.
Noah’s ability instantly stopped, and after practicing the skill, the mana spent creating the skill was once again reabsorbed into him. He glanced over towards Ailetta, his gaze followed her as she walked by him with an even it. Behind her, eyes formed behind her head and back, looking towards Noah as she advanced.
"I won’t allow us to continue to hold you back. I’ll show you that we can fight by your side, that we ’deserve’ to be by your side, trust me and watch." Ailetta said, and unlike her usual eccentric self, her expression was completely serious.
"Come!" She commanded her creation that was still coiled tightly around the snake, its mana dwindling at an insane rate to continue to rebuild itself from the repeated damages.
The moment Ailetta’s voice sounded, the slime’s eyes shot her way. Its mouth loosened over a new part of the behemoth’s body that it bit into, unraveling itself from the beast’s body.
It was time for the next experiment.